Hitting back at the unrealistic proportions and gender stereotyping of the women in comics, a new superheroine is being launched and - hold on to your hats - she's fully clothed.

Cat – Catherine Abigail Daniels – is a PhD student and the daughter of a policeman, whose only super-power is her extraordinary intelligence. She was dreamed up by author and academic Will Brooker, who was so horrified at the way women are represented in comics that he decided to write his own antidote. The catalyst for the creation of his new series, My So-Called Secret Identity – which he says has a "feminist approach from the ground up, in terms of story, character, artwork and production" – was a visit to his local comic shop near Kingston University, where he teaches.

"I walked in and I just felt so unwelcome. All the comics on the shelves were featuring women as pin-ups – women with their boobs out, or their clothes falling off … If someone like me feels uncomfortable walking into a comic shop, it's no wonder most teenage girls and adult women wouldn't set foot inside one," he said. Later that day, he led an induction session for the university's new PhD students. "I looked around at the room full of young women – so smart, determined, keen and committed – and remembered that in the original comic, Batgirl was meant to be a PhD student. Why do we never see women like this in comics – women who are normal, likeable and just really, really clever?" he asked.

Brooker, author of Batman Unmasked and Hunting the Dark Knight, went on to write the script for My So-Called Secret Identity, finding a creative team including Ottawa illustrator Susan Shore and Kingston PhD student Sarah Zaidan. The team is almost entirely female, as is the story's main cast, said Brooker, who could see the irony in his role in the project. "Women for good reason don't feel particularly engaged in the superhero genre," he said. "I have been immersed in superhero comics from a very young age – I'm an insider, so am working from the inside."

His character Cat, who is drawn into a world of costumed heroes and villains, ends up creating her own secret identity, but she starts out as just an average student, who is also dressed appropriately for a cold day.

"I wanted to get as far away as possible from presenting Cat as a sexual object," said Zaidan of the comic's front cover. "So she might be getting dressed, but she's not showing off. The placement of her hands holding her skirt shut as she finished pulling up the zipper deliberately echoes the classic 'hands-on-hips' superhero pose, while subverting it: this is a superhero text, but with an everyday young woman as its protagonist; if she's got her hand on her hip, she's not doing it to pose, it's part of the everyday act of getting dressed."

The first issue of the new series launched online today at www.mysocalledsecretidentity.com. The comic will be free, with funding raised to cover artists' fees and any extra going to women's charities. Brooker said $400 was made in the first hour after the comic went live at midnight, and early reviews have also been positive. Geeked Magazine wrote: "Move over Wonder Woman! Have a seat Batgirl (does anyone else get super annoyed with the fact that she's called girl?!). Here comes a NEW super woman and she is (actually) the one we've been waiting for."

Brooker is planning at least 15 episodes, and hopes to publish the first five as a book. "We took everything we hated about superhero comics – and flipped the script," he said, promising "no heroines running in stupid heels. No skimpy costumes or unrealistic proportions. No brainless, bra-less female characters or cheesecake pin-ups. No women as mere love-interest, or victims to be rescued and revenged."

But, as a fan of superhero comics from a "very young age", Brooker has ensured the new series has retained "everything we loved" about the genre. "There are costumes, capes, secret identities and sidekicks. There's a city full of larger-than-life characters – The Urbanite, Sekhmet, The Major, Carnival, Doll's Eyes. There's a conspiracy, a terror plot, a last-minute life-or-death choice; there are dual personalities and alternate Earths," he said.

Brooker's move to get comics to appeal to women follows the announcement last week that Marvel was planning to target "women readers" with novels featuring the comics heroines She-Hulk and Rogue. "We think the books will … draw a new crowd of women readers who will be introduced to superheroes through a medium they already love," the publisher said.